Chapter 10

Beside his brothers, Brady headed across Meath Mansion's grounds and toward Galloway Forest. A new moon made visibility near nonexistent and a heavy, but brief storm this afternoon left the grass sodden. Stars winked overhead and saltwater clung to the cool breeze as they stepped into the woods. A canopy of birch, oak, and maple swallowed them while creatures scurried. Leaves rustled. An owl hooted.

His stomach a riot of nerves and anticipation, he strode in silence, his brain firing on all cylinders. A quick glance proved the tension from his brothers was just as palpable as his own.

Tristan had often played in the woods as a boy but, to Brady's knowledge, he hadn't entered since they were teenagers. He was unsure what scenario had set his eldest sibling off, Tristan had never mentioned it, but it had been jarring enough to bar him from venturing this way since. Riley hadn't much interest in the area, far as Brady could tell, but he hadn't known the guy's opinion one way or the other on the lore surrounding the forest between the Meath land and the Galloway's.

It had been said Celeste and Finn first met in the clearing three-hundred years ago, and thus had begun their affair. A love and passion that was destined to end in tragedy. Forbidden, and naive on their part, to even try. Things were different back then and, how funny that all these centuries later, the two founding families were still butting heads.

Wary censure tightened both his brothers' expressions as they made their way deeper into the thicket. Peat moss and soil mixed with the scent of brine the closer they got to their destination.

Tristan stopped and cursed. "I can't see for crap." He pulled his cell from a pocket and activated the flashlight.

An eerie beam of light led their path, and they continued, shoes shushing damp earth.

"Anyone else feel like they're in a bad remake of Blair Witch?" Riley rubbed his neck, glancing around unblinking.

Despite his nerves, Brady laughed. "If you see a strange pile of rocks, warn us."

"I don't know how you talked me into this." Tristan stepped over a fallen tree. "They couldn't meet at a cafe or a pub like normal people?"

The Galloways weren't exactly normal and neither were the current circumstances, so Brady kept mum.

After a few minutes, they came to the empty clearing and stopped. There was a break in the canopy and trees, a circle of grass perhaps thirty feet in circumference, and his blood hummed. The girls were absent, but he and his brothers had left early for this mysterious meeting. Alone, they stood unmoving, and waited.

For years, Brady had been seeing Kaida in dreams. As much an enigma as the fact she kept surfacing. Truth be told, he cared about her like she was a flesh and blood person he came across daily. She was a dominant part of his life, both awake and asleep. Now, she not only had a face, but a name. He'd be lying if he hadn't hoped this day would come. To learn she was real, to give him something tangible to hold onto that wouldn't dissolve in the morning light.

He tapped his fingers against his thigh, impatient for answers. Would she recognize him? Did she remember him like he did her? Could the connection they seemed to share carry over into reality? Above all, how was it possible they knew each other and had never actually met?

A rustling stirred in the distance and his pulse hammered. The women emerged through the foliage, all three wearing jeans and loose-flowing blouses in varying colors. He skimmed right past Ceara's auburn curls, Fiona's cocoa waves, and locked onto Kaida's caramel strands.

His heart squeezed inside his chest in a vise determined to stop the beat altogether. She walked with her head down, her hair a partial curtain. Yet he knew, without getting a decent glimpse of her face, that it was her. Her gait was as graceful as a dancer, light-footed and sure, and as recognizable to him as his own hand.

He'd had those sultry curves under his palms, had held her against him, but he couldn't seem to dredge up memory of what it had felt like. They'd never made love in his dreams, and every caress had been like having his senses dulled. Touching, but not truly. Contact, yet with an invisible barrier.

As if by their own volition, his arms lifted automatically to pull her to him. He caught himself before anyone noticed, dropping them to his sides and making fists. Swallowing hard, he forced himself to look away and eyed his brothers. Both had tense and unforgiving postures, their arms crossed and jaws locked.

Riley's brows rose. "There's a joke in here somewhere. A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead walk into the woods..."

Fiona tilted her head, a tease of a smile curving her full lips. "Shouldn't we be naked for an effective punch line?"

Tristan slammed his eyes shut and Riley choked. Judging by the strangled sound, the images he'd conjured weren't unpleasant.

The women stopped several feet away from them in a row, facing the guys in some hocus pocus version of a wild west showdown. Then, only then, did Kaida look up.

Cerulean eyes locked onto Brady with abject surprise and a margin of fear. The meager amount of starlight cast her skin in ethereal tones and only served to amp her mysterious aura. The tiniest of wrinkles formed between the perfect arch of her brows, and she emitted a gasp while taking a tentative step in retreat. Trembling, she swept her gaze over him and resettled on his face.

Awareness and something he couldn't name vibrated the air between them. Crackled. It slithered up his spine, wound around his heart, and crept into his head to root around in his skull. Cold fingers of curiosity doused the heat of attraction in the errant path, leaving him winded.

Her respirations increased the longer she studied him, and he had to fight to keep his feet planted. Every atom in his body screamed at him to erase the distance, to move. Take her. Protect her. She seemed to be battling instincts of her own because she leaned forward and then snapped herself upright.

And damn. She knew him, too. Her recognition was obvious. He hadn't been alone in slumber after all or at the whim of the Sandman's amusement. He didn't know whether to sigh in relief or don a straightjacket.

A sheen of tears built in her eyes, and she jerked her gaze to the others. He realized they were bickering amongst themselves and shook his head to clear it.

"Whatever, Fi." Riley glanced around. "We're here, now tell us what's up."

"Boys, meet our sister. Kaida, this is Tristan, Riley, and"

"Brady," Kaida whispered brokenly, the fragileness of her voice slicing him deep. "You're...real."

"Wait." Ceara held up a hand. "You two have met before? Where? How?"

Riley offered a strained laugh. "Once upon a dream." At Ceara's look of confusion, he elaborated. "He's been dreaming about her since he was a kid."

Ceara blinked in surprise and faced Kaida. "I assume this is true for you also? Why didn't you say something?"

"I..." Kaida shook her head, her trembling increasing.

"Never mind that." Tristan shoved his hands in his pockets. "What do you mean by sister?"

Fiona flicked him a pitying glance. "Do I need to explain the dynamics of family?"

"Cut the crap." He eyed the "sisters" as if considering the pros and cons of manslaughter. "Where has she been all this time? Why haven't we known about her?"

"We're telling you now. Welcome to your destiny, Tristan. It begins today."

He flinched, looked at his brothers as if seeking help, and back to Fiona. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Three," she waved her hand at both sides of the proverbial chalk line, "by three. Three sets of green eyes. Three sets of blue."

If possible, Tristan paled more. "The curse? Are you kidding me? If you think for one second I'm falling for that bull, you're crazier than all your ancestors combined."

"Tact, man. How about you use it?" Riley shifted his irritated focus from Tristan to Ceara, the calmest of the group. "Give us the Cliffnotes version."

Ignoring Tristan, she acknowledged Riley with a nod. "When our mother learned she was expecting Kaida, she knew the fates were in alignment. She sent Kaida to live off island until it was time for her to return. That time has come."

"For the love of all that's holy." Tristan stalked away, one hand shoved in his hair, and paced the clearing.

Ceara's brows rose. "Believe what you want, but if we don't figure out what's expected of us, the spell will never be lifted." When Tristan bitched harder, she pinned him with a glare that stopped him in his tracks. "How old was your father when he died? Your grandfather? What about every male in your line? How many girls have been born to a Meath? How many wives have stuck through the generations?"

Tristan snarled. "Don't lay your bippity boppity boo crap on us."

"And don't hide your fear behind a wall of denial."

Riley and Fiona joined in the bickering, and Brady wearily sighed. This was getting them nowhere. He glanced at Kaida to see how she was doing, wondering when he could get her alone for thirty damn seconds, and stumbled back a step. The breath punched from his lungs.

The tears that clung to her thick, pale lashes lifted from her face. Lifted, not fell. As in, they hovered mid-air before her gorgeous eyes.

"Kaida?" He tried to draw breath and couldn't manage.

She took a couple steps away, violently shaking, and raised her hands in surrender. The moment she did, shit got weirder.

Dew and residual rain rose. Off the grass, the surrounding ferns, and the foliage, small water droplets elevated in perfect circles. A Salvador Dali version of a reverse storm shower. Higher, they rose until they hovered around the two of them in some kind of...protection bubble. When he dared to tear his eyes away from her, the entire clearing had the same thing happening. Like she'd pressed a rewind button on the elements.

Every hair on his body stood erect. Goosebumps skated across his arms. They stared at each other, wide-eyed and unmoving.

Kaida quaked, frozen but for her trembling limbs, and whimpered.

"Guys?" Brady cleared his throat so he could be heard over the arguing. "Guys!"

A collective silence ensued and he jerked his chin at Kaida. They seemed to finally notice the dilemma and went eerily still. Staring, staring.

After the longest pause, Riley reacted first. "Someone tell me what the actual hell is happening."